94-465: Crony capitalism , sometimes also called simply cronyism , is a pejorative term used in political discourse to describe a situation in which businesses profit from a close relationship with state power, either through an anti-competitive regulatory environment , direct government largesse, and/or corruption . Examples given for crony capitalism include obtainment of permits, government grants, tax breaks , or other undue influence from businesses over
188-569: A crony-capitalism index calculated via how much economic activity occurs in industries prone to cronyism. Its 2014 Crony Capitalism Index ranking listed Hong Kong, Russia and Malaysia in the top three spots. Crony capitalism in finance was found in the Second Bank of the United States . It was a private company, but its largest stockholder was the federal government which owned 20%. It was an early bank regulator and grew to be one being
282-529: A ripple effect through the financial system and the economy (as well as any connected economies) as a whole. The foreign ministers of the 10 ASEAN countries believed that the well co-ordinated manipulation of their currencies was a deliberate attempt to destabilize the ASEAN economies . Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad accused George Soros and other currency traders of ruining Malaysia's economy with currency speculation . Soros claims to have been
376-489: A $ 40 billion program to stabilize the currencies of South Korea, Thailand, and Indonesia, economies particularly hard hit by the crisis. However, the efforts to stem a global economic crisis did little to stabilize the domestic situation in Indonesia. After 30 years in power, Indonesian President Suharto was forced to step down on 21 May 1998 in the wake of widespread rioting that followed sharp price increases caused by
470-504: A broader liberal critique of economic dirigisme . The term has also been applied to the system of oligarchs in Russia. Other states to which the term has been applied include India, in particular the system after the 1990s liberalization , whereby land and other resources were given at throwaway prices in the name of public private partnerships, the more recent coal-gate scam and cheap allocation of land and resources to Adani SEZ under
564-431: A business provides an incentive to stay in the good graces of political officials. Troublesome rivals who have overstepped their bounds can have these laws suddenly enforced against them, leading to fines or even jail time. Even in high-income democracies with well-established legal systems and freedom of the press in place, a larger state is generally associated with increased political corruption. The term crony capitalism
658-485: A buyer of the ringgit during its fall, having sold it short in 1997. At the 30th ASEAN Ministerial Meeting held in Subang Jaya , Malaysia , the foreign ministers issued a joint declaration on 25 July 1997 expressing serious concern and called for further intensification of ASEAN's cooperation to safeguard and promote ASEAN's interest in this regard. Coincidentally, on that same day, the central bankers of most of
752-578: A drastic devaluation of the rupiah . The effects of the crisis lingered through 1998, where many important stocks fell in Wall Street as a result of a dip in the values of the currencies of Russia and Latin American countries that weakened those countries' "demand for U.S. exports." In 1998, growth in the Philippines dropped to virtually zero. Only Singapore proved relatively insulated from
846-487: A free market is dispensed with, bribes to government officials are considered de rigueur and tax evasion is common. This is seen in many parts of Africa and is sometimes called plutocracy (rule by wealth) or kleptocracy (rule by theft). Kenyan economist David Ndii has repeatedly brought to light how this system has manifested over time, occasioned by the reign of Uhuru Kenyatta as president. Corrupt governments may favor one set of business owners who have close ties to
940-579: A further decline in South Korean shares since stock markets were already bearish in November. The Seoul stock exchange fell by 4% on 7 November 1997. On 8 November, it plunged by 7%, its biggest one-day drop to that date. And on 24 November, stocks fell a further 7.2% on fears that the IMF would demand tough reforms. In 1998, Hyundai Motor Company took over Kia Motors. Samsung Motors ' $ 5 billion venture
1034-508: A greater devaluation? This is a relevant tradeoff, but there can be no question that the degree of devaluation in the Asian countries is excessive, both from the viewpoint of the individual countries, and from the viewpoint of the international system. Looking first to the individual country, companies with substantial foreign currency debts, as so many companies in these countries have, stood to suffer far more from… currency (depreciation) than from
SECTION 10
#17327730843651128-425: A high rate of return . As a result, the region's economies received a large inflow of money and experienced a dramatic run-up in asset prices. At the same time, the regional economies of Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and South Korea experienced high growth rates, of 8–12% GDP, in the late 1980s and early 1990s. This achievement was widely acclaimed by financial institutions including IMF and World Bank , and
1222-511: A highly leveraged economic climate, and pushed up asset prices to an unsustainable level, particularly those in non-productive sectors of the economy such as real-estate. These asset prices eventually began to collapse, causing individuals and companies to default on debt obligations. The resulting panic among lenders led to a large withdrawal of credit from the crisis countries, causing a credit crunch and further bankruptcies. In addition, as foreign investors attempted to withdraw their money,
1316-407: A large number of Indonesian corporations had been borrowing in U.S. dollars. This practice had worked well for these corporations during the preceding years, as the rupiah had strengthened respective to the dollar; their effective levels of debt and financing costs had decreased as the local currency's value rose. In July 1997, when Thailand floated the baht, Indonesia's monetary authorities widened
1410-462: A largely uncontrolled manner to certain people only – not necessarily the best suited or most efficient, but those closest to the centers of power. Weak corporate governance also led to inefficient investment and declining profitability. Until 1999, Asia attracted almost half of the total capital inflow into developing countries . The economies of Southeast Asia in particular maintained high interest rates attractive to foreign investors looking for
1504-567: A precipitous rise in private debt . Foreign debt-to-GDP ratios rose from 100% to 167% in the four large Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) economies in 1993–96, then shot up beyond 180% during the worst of the crisis. In South Korea, the ratios rose from 13% to 21% and then as high as 40%, while the other northern newly industrialized countries fared much better. Only in Thailand and South Korea did debt service-to-exports ratios rise. South Korea , Indonesia and Thailand were
1598-608: A quality product at a competitive price. For example, the political entrepreneurs such as Edward Collins in steamships and the leaders of the Union Pacific Railroad in railroads were men who used the power of government to succeed. They tried to gain subsidies or in some way use government to stop competitors. Political discourse Too Many Requests If you report this error to the Wikimedia System Administrators, please include
1692-473: A result of the crisis. Following the 1997 Asian financial crisis, income in the northeast, the poorest part of the country, rose by 46 percent from 1998 to 2006. Nationwide poverty fell from 21.3 to 11.3 percent. Thailand's Gini coefficient , a measure of income inequality , fell from .525 in 2000 to .499 in 2004 (it had risen from 1996 to 2000) versus 1997 Asian financial crisis. By 2001, Thailand's economy had recovered. The increasing tax revenues allowed
1786-556: A result of the crisis. In May 1997, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas , the country's central bank, raised interest rates by 1.75 percentage points and again by 2 points on 19 June. Thailand triggered the crisis on 2 July and on 3 July, the Bangko Sentral intervened to defend the peso , raising the overnight rate from 15% to 32% at the onset of the Asian crisis in mid-July 1997. The peso dropped from 26 pesos per dollar at
1880-560: A ripple effect, raising fears of a worldwide economic meltdown due to financial contagion . However, the recovery in 1998–1999 was rapid, and worries of a meltdown quickly subsided. Originating in Thailand, where it was known as the Tom Yum Kung crisis ( Thai : วิกฤตต้มยำกุ้ง ) on 2 July, it followed the financial collapse of the Thai baht after the Thai government was forced to float
1974-483: A series of bailouts ("rescue packages") for the most-affected economies to enable them to avoid default , tying the packages to currency, banking and financial system reforms. Due to IMF's involvement in the financial crisis, the term IMF Crisis became a way to refer to the Asian Financial Crisis in countries that were affected. The IMF's support was conditional on a series of economic reforms,
SECTION 20
#17327730843652068-494: A temporary rise in domestic interest rates…. Thus, on macroeconomics… monetary policy has to be kept tight to restore confidence in the currency.... From the then IMF managing director Michel Camdessus : To reverse (currency depreciation), countries have to make it more attractive to hold domestic currency, and that means temporarily raising interest rates, even if this (hurts) weak banks and corporations. From 1985 to 1996, Thailand's economy grew at an average of over 9% per year,
2162-715: A toxic combination of corporations and government officials running sectors of the economy. For instance, the Financial Times observed that, in Vietnam during the 2010s, the primary beneficiaries of cronyism were Communist party officials, noting also the "common practice of employing only party members and their family members and associates to government jobs or to jobs in state-owned enterprises." Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro prefers to equate this problem with terms such as corporatocracy or corporatism , considered "a modern form of mercantilism ", to emphasize that
2256-505: A unified front (sometimes called a trade association or industry trade group ) to the government in requesting subsidies or aid or regulation. For instance, newcomers to a market then need to surmount significant barriers to entry in seeking loans, acquiring shelf space, or receiving official sanction. Some such systems are very formalized, such as sports leagues and the Medallion System of the taxicabs of New York City , but often
2350-411: Is not a product of crony capitalism, but because India is no longer under the influence of crony socialism. While the problem is generally accepted across the political spectrum, ideology shades the view of the problem's causes and therefore its solutions. Political views mostly fall into two camps which might be called the socialist and capitalist critique. The socialist position is that crony capitalism
2444-406: Is simply the inevitable result of any strictly capitalist system. Jane Jacobs described it as a natural consequence of collusion between those managing power and trade while Noam Chomsky has argued that the word crony is superfluous when describing capitalism. Since businesses make money and money leads to political power, business will inevitably use their power to influence governments. Much of
2538-457: Is the inevitable result of any strictly capitalist system and thus broadly democratic government must regulate economic, or wealthy, interests to restrict monopoly. The capitalist position is that natural monopolies are rare, therefore governmental regulations generally abet established wealthy interests by restricting competition. Critics of crony capitalism including socialists and anti-capitalists often assert that so-called crony capitalism
2632-399: Is used largely interchangeably with the related term corporate welfare , although the latter is by definition specific to corporations . Crony capitalism exists along a continuum. In its lightest form, crony capitalism consists of collusion among market players which is officially tolerated or encouraged by the government. While perhaps lightly competing against each other, they will present
2726-494: The Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 . More direct government involvement in a specific sector can also lead to specific areas of crony capitalism, even if the economy as a whole may be competitive. This is most common in natural resource sectors through the granting of mining or drilling concessions, but it is also possible through a process known as regulatory capture where
2820-687: The Bush administration . Gerald P. O'Driscoll, former vice president at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas , stated that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac became examples of crony capitalism as government backing let Fannie and Freddie dominate mortgage underwriting , saying. "The politicians created the mortgage giants, which then returned some of the profits to the pols—sometimes directly, as campaign funds; sometimes as "contributions" to favored constituents". In its worst form, crony capitalism can devolve into simple corruption where any pretense of
2914-509: The Congress and BJP governments. Similar references to crony capitalism have been made to other countries such as Argentina and Greece. Wu Jinglian , one of China's leading economists and a longtime advocate of its transition to free markets, says that it faces two starkly contrasting futures, namely a market economy under the rule of law or crony capitalism. A dozen years later, prominent political scientist Pei Minxin had concluded that
Crony capitalism - Misplaced Pages Continue
3008-625: The Industrial Revolution began in Great Britain because they were the first to successfully limit the power of veto groups (typically cronies of those with power in government) to block innovations, writing: "Unlike most other national environments, the British environment of the early 19th century contained relatively few threats to those who improved and applied existing inventions, whether from business competitors, labor, or
3102-584: The Jakarta Stock Exchange touched a historic low in September. Moody's eventually downgraded Indonesia's long-term debt to " junk bond ". Although the rupiah crisis began in July and August 1997, it intensified in November when the effects of that summer devaluation showed up on corporate balance sheets. Companies that had borrowed in dollars had to face the higher costs imposed upon them by
3196-615: The Latin American debt crisis . The effects of the SAPs were mixed and their impact controversial. Critics, however, noted the contractionary nature of these policies, arguing that in a recession , the traditional Keynesian response was to increase government spending, prop up major companies, and lower interest rates. The reasoning was that by stimulating the economy and staving off recession , governments could restore confidence while preventing economic loss . They pointed out that
3290-538: The Reserve Bank of India , has said: "One of the greatest dangers to the growth of developing countries is the middle income trap , where crony capitalism creates oligarchies that slow down growth. If the debate during the elections is any pointer, this is a very real concern of the public in India today". Tavleen Singh , columnist for The Indian Express , has disagreed. According to Singh, India's corporate success
3384-428: The exchange market was flooded with the currencies of the crisis countries, putting depreciative pressure on their exchange rates. To prevent currency values collapsing, these countries' governments raised domestic interest rates to exceedingly high levels (to help diminish flight of capital by making lending more attractive to investors) and intervened in the exchange market, buying up any excess domestic currency at
3478-455: The fixed exchange rate with foreign reserves . Neither of these policy responses could be sustained for long, as several countries had insufficient levels of foreign exchange reserves. Very high interest rates, which can be extremely damaging to a healthy economy, wreaked further havoc on economies in an already fragile state, while the central banks were hemorrhaging foreign reserves, of which they had finite amounts. When it became clear that
3572-472: The " structural adjustment package" (SAP). The SAPs called on crisis-struck nations to reduce government spending and deficits, allow insolvent banks and financial institutions to fail, and aggressively raise interest rates. The reasoning was that these steps would restore confidence in the nations' fiscal solvency , penalize insolvent companies, and protect currency values. Above all, it was stipulated that IMF-funded capital had to be administered rationally in
3666-432: The "General Agreement to Borrow" and the "Emergency Finance Mechanism". The scope and the severity of the collapses led to an urgent need for outside intervention. Since the countries melting down were among the richest in their region, and in the world, and since hundreds of billions of dollars were at stake, any response to the crisis was likely to be cooperative and international. The International Monetary Fund created
3760-472: The 1990s after the implementation of a number of export-oriented reforms. Other economists dispute China's impact, noting that both ASEAN and China experienced simultaneous rapid export growth in the early 1990s. Many economists believe that the Asian crisis was created not by market psychology or technology, but by policies that distorted incentives within the lender–borrower relationship. The resulting large quantities of credit that became available generated
3854-498: The 1990s, hot money flew into the Southeast Asia region through financial hubs , especially Hong Kong. The investors were often ignorant of the actual fundamentals or risk profiles of the respective economies, and once the crisis gripped the region, the political uncertainty regarding the future of Hong Kong as an Asian financial centre led some investors to withdraw from Asia altogether. This shrink in investments only worsened
Crony capitalism - Misplaced Pages Continue
3948-557: The IMF, the reserves of Thailand and South Korea were perilously low, and the Indonesian Rupiah was excessively depreciated. Thus, the first order of business was... to restore confidence in the currency. To achieve this, countries have to make it more attractive to hold domestic currency, which in turn, requires increasing interest rates temporarily, even if higher interest costs complicate the situation of weak banks and corporations... Why not operate with lower interest rates and
4042-552: The Supreme Court's establishment of Congressional supremacy over commerce, the Interstate Commerce Commission was established in 1887 with the intent of regulating railroad robber barons . President Grover Cleveland appointed Thomas M. Cooley , a railroad ally, as its first chairman and a permit system was used to deny access to new entrants and legalize price fixing . The defense industry in
4136-408: The U.S. government had pursued expansionary policies, such as lowering interest rates, increasing government spending, and cutting taxes, when the United States itself entered a recession in 2001, and arguably the same in the fiscal and monetary policies during the 2008–2009 Global Financial Crisis. Many commentators in retrospect criticized the IMF for encouraging the developing economies of Asia down
4230-544: The USD–Baht currency peg, and the Thai government was eventually forced to float the Baht, on 2 July 1997, allowing the value of the Baht to be set by the currency market. This caused a chain reaction of events, eventually culminating into a region-wide crisis. Thailand's booming economy came to a halt amid massive layoffs in finance, real estate, and construction that resulted in huge numbers of workers returning to their villages in
4324-474: The United States a more attractive investment destination relative to Southeast Asia, which had been attracting hot money flows through high short-term interest rates, and raised the value of the U.S. dollar. For the Southeast Asian nations which had currencies pegged to the U.S. dollar, the higher U.S. dollar caused their own exports to become more expensive and less competitive in the global markets. At
4418-834: The United States is often described as an example of crony capitalism in an industry. Connections with the Pentagon and lobbyists in Washington are described by critics as more important than actual competition due to the political and secretive nature of defense contracts. In the Airbus-Boeing WTO dispute , Airbus (which receives outright subsidies from European governments) has stated Boeing receives similar subsidies which are hidden as inefficient defense contracts. Other American defense companies were put under scrutiny for no-bid contracts for Iraq War and Hurricane Katrina related contracts purportedly due to having cronies in
4512-583: The affected countries were at the EMEAP (Executive Meeting of East Asia Pacific) meeting in Shanghai, and they failed to make the "New Arrangement to Borrow" operational. A year earlier, the finance ministers of these same countries had attended the 3rd APEC finance ministers meeting in Kyoto , Japan, on 17 March 1996, and according to that joint declaration, they had been unable to double the amounts available under
4606-407: The baht due to lack of foreign currency to support its currency peg to the U.S. dollar . Capital flight ensued almost immediately, beginning an international chain reaction. At the time, Thailand had acquired a burden of foreign debt . As the crisis spread, other Southeast Asian countries and later Japan and South Korea saw slumping currencies, devalued stock markets and other asset prices, and
4700-401: The chain objectives of tightened money supply , discouraged currency speculation , stabilized exchange rate, curbed currency depreciation, and ultimately contained inflation . In the Asian meltdown, highest IMF officials rationalized their prescribed high interest rates as follows: From then IMF First Deputy managing director, Stanley Fischer in 1998: When their governments "approached
4794-591: The countries most affected by the crisis. Hong Kong , Laos , Malaysia and the Philippines were also hurt by the slump. Brunei , mainland China , Japan , Singapore , Taiwan , and Vietnam were less affected, although all suffered from a general loss of demand and confidence throughout the region. Although most of the governments of Asia had seemingly sound fiscal policies , the International Monetary Fund (IMF) stepped in to initiate
SECTION 50
#17327730843654888-477: The country to balance its budget and repay its debts to the IMF in 2003, four years ahead of schedule. The Thai baht continued to appreciate to 29 Baht to the U.S. dollar in October 2010. In June 1997, Indonesia seemed far from crisis. Unlike Thailand, Indonesia had low inflation, a trade surplus of more than $ 900 million, huge foreign exchange reserves of more than $ 20 billion, and a good banking sector. However,
4982-624: The country, many factors arising from all aspects, including sports broadcasting on Indonesian television, including: Additionally, the Indonesian motorcycle Grand Prix , which was held at Sentul , was dropped from the 1998 Superbike and MotoGP calendars. World Rally Championship also dropped the Rally Indonesia from their 1998 calendar . The banking sector was burdened with non-performing loans as its large corporations were funding aggressive expansions. During that time, there
5076-858: The countryside and 600,000 foreign workers being sent back to their home countries. The baht devalued swiftly and lost more than half of its value. The baht reached its lowest point of 56 units to the U.S. dollar in January 1998. The Thai stock market dropped 75%. Finance One, the largest Thai finance company until then, collapsed. On 11 August 1997, the IMF unveiled a rescue package for Thailand with more than $ 17 billion, subject to conditions such as passing laws relating to bankruptcy (reorganizing and restructuring) procedures and establishing strong regulation frameworks for banks and other financial institutions. The IMF approved on 20 August 1997, another bailout package of $ 2.9 billion. Poverty and inequality increased while employment, wages and social welfare all declined as
5170-482: The debacle are many and disputed. Thailand's economy developed into an economic bubble fueled by hot money . More and more was required as the size of the bubble grew. The same type of situation happened in Malaysia and Indonesia, which had the added complication of what was called " crony capitalism ". The short-term capital flow was expensive and often highly conditioned for quick profit . Development money went in
5264-515: The details below. Request from 172.68.168.133 via cp1102 cp1102, Varnish XID 554044908 Upstream caches: cp1102 int Error: 429, Too Many Requests at Thu, 28 Nov 2024 05:51:24 GMT 1997 Asian financial crisis The 1997 Asian financial crisis was a period of financial crisis that gripped much of East and Southeast Asia during the late 1990s. The crisis began in Thailand in July 1997 before spreading to several other countries with
5358-691: The economic environment. The devaluation of the Chinese renminbi and the Japanese yen , subsequent to the latter's strengthening due to the Plaza Accord of 1985, the raising of U.S. interest rates which led to a strong U.S. dollar, and the sharp decline in semiconductor prices, all adversely affected their growth. As the U.S. economy recovered from a recession in the early 1990s, the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank under Alan Greenspan began to raise U.S. interest rates to head off inflation . This made
5452-454: The financial conditions in Asia (subsequently leading to the depreciation of the Thai baht on 2 July 1997). Several case studies on the topic of the application of network analysis of a financial system help to explain the interconnectivity of financial markets , as well as the significance of the robustness of hubs (or main nodes). Any negative externalities in the hubs creates
5546-497: The future, with no favored parties receiving funds by preference. In at least one of the affected countries the restrictions on foreign ownership were greatly reduced. There were to be adequate government controls set up to supervise all financial activities, ones that were to be independent, in theory, of private interest. Insolvent institutions had to be closed, and insolvency itself had to be clearly defined. In addition, financial systems were to become "transparent", that is, provide
5640-435: The government agencies in charge of regulating an industry come to be controlled by that industry. Governments will often establish in good faith government agencies to regulate an industry . However, the members of an industry have a very strong interest in the actions of that regulatory body while the rest of the citizenry are only lightly affected. As a result, it is not uncommon for current industry players to gain control of
5734-526: The government itself. In other European countries, by contrast, the merchant guilds ... were a pervasive source of veto for many centuries. This power was typically bestowed upon them by government." Vermon further stated that "a steam powered horseless carriage produced in France in 1769 was officially suppressed." James Watt began experimenting with steam in 1763, got a patent in 1769 and began commercial production in 1775. Raghuram Rajan , former governor of
SECTION 60
#17327730843655828-548: The government over others. This may also be done with, religious, or ethnic favoritism. For instance, Alawites in Syria have a disproportionate share of power in the government and business there ( President Assad himself is an Alawite). This can be explained by considering personal relationships as a social network . As government and business leaders try to accomplish various things, they naturally turn to other powerful people for support in their endeavors. These people form hubs in
5922-404: The highest economic growth rate of any country at the time. Inflation was kept reasonably low within a range of 3.4–5.7%. The baht was pegged at 25 to the U.S. dollar. On 14 and 15 May 1997, the Thai baht was hit by massive speculative attacks. On 30 June 1997, Prime Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh said that he would not devalue the baht. However, Thailand lacked the foreign reserves to support
6016-471: The impetus behind campaign finance reform in the United States and in other countries is an attempt to prevent economic power being used to take political power. Ravi Batra argues that "all official economic measures adopted since 1981 ... have devastated the middle class" and that the Occupy Wall Street movement should push for their repeal and thus end the influence of the super wealthy in
6110-467: The international financial community. Later that year, in July, South Korea's third-largest car maker, Kia Motors , asked for emergency loans. The domino effect of collapsing large South Korean companies drove the interest rates up and international investors away. In the wake of the Asian market downturn, Moody's lowered the credit rating of South Korea from A1 to A3, on 28 November 1997, and downgraded again to B2 on 11 December. That contributed to
6204-499: The kind of financial information used in the West to make financial decisions. As countries fell into crisis, many local businesses and governments that had taken out loans in US dollars, which suddenly became much more expensive relative to the local currency which formed their earned income, found themselves unable to pay their creditors. The dynamics of the situation were similar to that of
6298-553: The latter course had become deeply embedded in China. The anti-corruption campaign under Xi Jinping (2012–) has seen more than 100,000 high- and low-ranking Chinese officials indicted and jailed. Many prosperous nations have also had varying amounts of cronyism throughout their history, including the United Kingdom especially in the 1600s and 1700s, the United States and Japan. The Economist benchmarks countries based on
6392-474: The legal barriers are light. The term crony capitalism is generally used when these practices either come to dominate the economy as a whole, or come to dominate the most valuable industries in an economy. Intentionally ambiguous laws and regulations are common in such systems. Taken strictly, such laws would greatly impede practically all business activity, but in practice they are only erratically enforced. The specter of having such laws suddenly brought down upon
6486-461: The mixture of business and government stifles competition, a collusive result called regulatory capture . Burton W. Folsom Jr. distinguishes those that engage in crony capitalism—designated by him political entrepreneurs—from those who compete in the marketplace without special aid from government, whom he calls market entrepreneurs. The market entrepreneurs such as James J. Hill , Cornelius Vanderbilt and John D. Rockefeller succeeded by producing
6580-413: The most powerful organizations in the country due largely to being the depository of the government's revenue. The Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act in 1999 completely removed Glass–Steagall ’s separation between commercial banks and investment banks. After this repeal, commercial banks, investment banks and insurance companies combined their lobbying efforts. Critics claim this was instrumental in the passage of
6674-430: The network. In a developing country those hubs may be very few, thus concentrating economic and political power in a small interlocking group. Normally, this will be untenable to maintain in business as new entrants will affect the market. However, if business and government are entwined, then the government can maintain the small-hub network. Raymond Vernon , specialist in economics and international affairs, wrote that
6768-401: The only way to run a profitable business in such a system is to have help from corrupt government officials. Likewise, Hernando de Soto said that mercantilism "is also known as 'crony' or 'noninclusive' capitalism". Even if the initial regulation was well-intentioned (to curb actual abuses) and even if the initial lobbying by corporations was well-intentioned (to reduce illogical regulations),
6862-443: The path of "fast-track capitalism", meaning liberalization of the financial sector (elimination of restrictions on capital flows), maintenance of high domestic interest rates to attract portfolio investment and bank capital, and pegging of the national currency to the dollar to reassure foreign investors against currency risk. The conventional high-interest-rate economic strategy is normally employed by monetary authorities to attain
6956-475: The political process which he considers a manifestation of crony capitalism. Socialist economists, such as Robin Hahnel , have criticized the term as an ideologically motivated attempt to cast what is in their view the fundamental problems of capitalism as avoidable irregularities. Socialist economists dismiss the term as an apologetic for failures of neoliberal policy and more fundamentally their perception of
7050-413: The process is more subtle, such as expanding training and certification exams to make it more expensive for new entrants to enter a market and thereby limiting potential competition. In technological fields, there may evolve a system whereby new entrants may be accused of infringing on patents that the established competitors never assert against each other. In spite of this, some competitors may succeed when
7144-537: The program, 787 insolvent financial institutions were closed or merged by June 2003. The number of financial institutions in which foreign investors invested has increased rapidly. Examples include New Bridge Capital's takeover of Korea First Bank. The South Korean won , meanwhile, weakened to more than 1,700 per U.S. dollar from around 800, but later managed to recover. However, like the chaebol, South Korea's government did not escape unscathed. Its national debt -to-GDP ratio more than doubled (approximately 13% to 30%) as
7238-464: The rate was almost exactly 8,000 to 1 U.S. dollar. Indonesia lost 13.5% of its GDP that year. In February 1998, President Suharto sacked the incumbent Bank Indonesia governor, J. Soedradjad Djiwandono , but this proved insufficient. Amidst widespread rioting in May 1998 , Suharto resigned under public pressure and Vice President B. J. Habibie replaced him. As a result of the financial crisis that hit
7332-405: The role of asymmetric information in the financial markets that led to a " herd mentality " among investors that magnified a small risk in the real economy. The crisis has thus attracted attention from behavioral economists interested in market psychology . Another possible cause of the sudden risk shock may also be attributable to the handover of Hong Kong sovereignty on 1 July 1997 . During
7426-408: The role of the real economy in the crisis compared to the financial markets. The rapidity with which the crisis happened has prompted Sachs and others to compare it to a classic bank run prompted by a sudden risk shock. Sachs pointed to strict monetary and contractionary fiscal policies implemented by the governments on the advice of the IMF in the wake of the crisis, while Frederic Mishkin points to
7520-550: The rupiah currency trading band from 8% to 12%. As a result, the rupiah suddenly came under severe attack in August. Therefore, on the 14th of the month, the managed floating exchange regime was replaced by a free-floating exchange rate arrangement. The rupiah dropped further due to the shift. The IMF came forward with a rescue package of $ 23 billion, but the rupiah was sinking further amid fears over corporate debts, massive selling of rupiah, and strong demand for dollars. The rupiah and
7614-458: The rupiah's decline, and many reacted by buying dollars through selling rupiah, undermining the value of the latter further. Before the crisis, the exchange rate between the rupiah and the dollar was roughly 2,600 rupiah to 1 U.S. dollar. The rate plunged to over 11,000 rupiah to 1 U.S. dollar on 9 January 1998, with spot rates over 14,000 during 23–26 January and trading again over 14,000 for about six weeks during June–July 1998. On 31 December 1998,
7708-448: The same time, Southeast Asia's export growth slowed dramatically in the spring of 1996, deteriorating their current account position. Some economists have advanced the growing exports of China as a factor contributing to ASEAN nations' export growth slowdown, though these economists maintain the main cause of their crises was excessive real estate speculation. China had begun to compete effectively with other Asian exporters particularly in
7802-463: The shock, but nevertheless suffered serious hits in passing, mainly due to its status as a major financial hub and its geographical proximity to Malaysia and Indonesia. By 1999, however, analysts saw signs that the economies of Asia were beginning to recover. After the crisis, economies in East and Southeast Asia worked together toward financial stability and better financial supervision. The causes of
7896-557: The state's deployment of public goods, for example, mining concessions for primary commodities or contracts for public works. In other words, it is used to describe a situation where businesses thrive not as a result of free enterprise , but rather collusion between a business class and the political class . Wealth is then accumulated not merely by making a profit in the market , but through profiteering by rent seeking using this monopoly or oligopoly . Entrepreneurship and innovative practices which seek to reward risk are stifled since
7990-537: The term "crony capitalism" came about in the 1980s, to characterize the Philippine economy under the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos . Early uses of this term to describe the economic practices of the Marcos regime included that of Ricardo Manapat , who introduced it in his 1979 pamphlet "Some are Smarter than Others", which was later published in 1991; former Time magazine business editor George M. Taber, who used
8084-477: The term in a Time magazine article in 1980, and activist (and later Finance Minister) Jaime Ongpin , who used the term extensively in his writing and is sometimes credited for having coined it. The term crony capitalism made a significant impact in the public as an explanation of the Asian financial crisis . It is also used to describe governmental decisions favoring cronies of governmental officials. The term
8178-466: The tide of capital fleeing these countries was not to be stopped, the authorities ceased defending their fixed exchange rates and allowed their currencies to float . The resulting depreciated value of those currencies meant that foreign currency-denominated liabilities grew substantially in domestic currency terms, causing more bankruptcies and further deepening the crisis. Other economists, including Joseph Stiglitz and Jeffrey Sachs , have downplayed
8272-399: The value-added is little by crony businesses, as hardly anything of significant value is created by them, with transactions taking the form of trading. Crony capitalism spills over into the government, the politics, and the media, when this nexus distorts the economy and affects society to an extent it corrupts public-serving economic, political, and social ideals. The first extensive use of
8366-487: The watchdog and to use it against competitors. This typically takes the form of making it very expensive for a new entrant to enter the market. An 1824 landmark United States Supreme Court ruling overturned a New York State-granted monopoly ("a veritable model of state munificence" facilitated by Robert R. Livingston , one of the Founding Fathers ) for the then-revolutionary technology of steamboats . Leveraging
8460-408: The weaknesses of market allocation. Supporters of capitalism also generally oppose crony capitalism. Further, supporters such as classical liberals , neoliberals and right-libertarians consider it an aberration brought on by governmental favors incompatible with free market .. In the capitalist view, cronyism is the result of an excess of interference in the market which inevitably will result in
8554-574: Was a haste to build great conglomerates to compete on the world stage. Many businesses ultimately failed to ensure returns and profitability. The chaebol , South Korean conglomerates, simply absorbed more and more capital investment. Eventually, excess debt led to major failures and takeovers. Amongst other stimuli, the crisis resulted in the bankruptcy of major Korean companies, provoking not only corporations, but also government officials towards corruption. The Hanbo scandal of early 1997 exposed South Korea's economic weaknesses and corruption problems to
8648-505: Was dissolved due to the crisis, and eventually Daewoo Motors was sold to the American company General Motors (GM). The International Monetary Fund (IMF) provided US$ 58.4 billion as a bailout package. In return, Korea was required to take restructuring measures. The ceiling on foreign investment in Korean companies was raised from 26 percent to 100 percent. In addition, the Korean government started financial sector reform program. Under
8742-425: Was initially applied to states involved in the 1997 Asian financial crisis such as Indonesia, South Korea and Thailand. In these cases, the term was used to point out how family members of the ruling leaders become extremely wealthy with no non-political justification. Southeast Asian nations, such as Hong Kong and Malaysia, still score very poorly in rankings measuring this. It was also used in this context as part of
8836-402: Was known as part of the " Asian economic miracle ". In the mid-1990s, Thailand , Indonesia and South Korea had large private current account deficits, and the maintenance of fixed exchange rates encouraged external borrowing and led to excessive exposure to foreign exchange risk in both the financial and corporate sectors. In the mid-1990s, a series of external shocks began to change
#364635